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Friday, April 7, 2017

Who’s wasted?

Many of you have likely heard the phrase “a
picture is worth a thousand words”. Nothing could be truer than the picture that inspired this week’s
blog. Today we celebrated a milestone
birthday for a man some of us would call a mentor and many of us would call a
friend. As soon as I took the picture at
lunch I knew it was going to be a muse for this week’s blog. Do I go with the obvious and talk about the
perils of getting older and dealing with a weakened immune system? It would work for a topic as influenza and
several other respiratory
viruses are still widely circulating.
Do I go with the “ick factor” as everyone around our table winced and
wondered about the chance of our colleague getting lice from a hat that has not
likely ever been cleaned and/or disinfected?

I could, but as you know in recent years I have become more
involved with infection control within the animal health industry. I grew up on a farm so livestock and wildlife
have always been a part of my life. It
was like the stars aligned. When I got
back to my desk the first email I saw was one from the US Animal Health
Association with an article on investigating ELK carcasses for disease. EUREKA!
The last several months several of my news feeds have been buzzing over Chronic
Wasting Disease (CWD).

Now do you get the title?
Wasting Disease…..you should be ashamed if you thought otherwise….

Whether you’re in human health or animal human markets, we
have all heard of Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies (TSE’s) caused by
prions. Mad
Cow Disease (or Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy) may be the one that many
people recognize due to the epidemic in the late 1980’s in the UK and
subsequent tie to cases of humans diagnosed with Creutzfeldt-Jacob Disease.

Chronic wasting disease like BSE or CJD is a progressive,
fatal, degenerative disease of the brain ungulates (elk, mule, deer, and
white-tailed deer). Similar to all
TSE’s, it can be years before an animal shows symptoms. Eventually, the “wasted” animals will exhibit
loss of condition, excessive salivation, trouble swallowing, difficulty judging
distance and changes in behavior. The
exact mechanism of transmission is unclear, but we do know that CWD can spread
from animal to animal and females can pass the disease to their offspring. There is no evidence that CWD can affect other
animals, but to be on the safe side, the WHO advises against allowing any meat
source possibly infected by prions into the human food system.

Regardless of what wasting disease we may come across, the
long and the short of it is that infection prevention is an important aspect of
our lives to keep both humans and animals healthy! If your birthday is coming up, be sure to
celebrate, but think twice before you put a “moose” hat on!